A Brief on Directive Decision Devices

____________________________________________________________________________ A quickening, if still somewhat quiet, shift in the balance of practical power from men to machines is now well underway. In more and more application areas, and more and more completely, decision authority is being removed from human functionaries and reassigned to computer-centered constructs. Such constructs will here be denoted as Directive Decision Devices. They are distinguished from other types of technical artifices not just by their ability to act as entirely autonomous decision agents, but also because any humans that that happen to come into their company are also likely come under their command. There are opportunities for variability among directive decision devices, both as to mission (of which there are at least four distinct categories) and instrumental content. It seems, however, that most directive decision devices ⎯existing and prospective alike⎯ will tend to cluster around one of eight configurational ideal-types. When these prototypical directive decision devices are arrayed on a continuum of capabilities, those sitting towards the low end of the continuum will be comprehensible as automata-type appliances, while those positioned towards the more capable extreme will be strongly reminiscent of cybernetic process management systems. _____________________________________________________________________________